A wide variety of flexible printed circuit (FPC) connectors are presently used in different environments. These FPC connectors conventionally have a housing mounting a plurality of terminals in a generally parallel array spaced along an elongated hollow portion thereof for receiving an end of a flexible printed circuit (FPC). Typically, the connector uses an actuator to press the FPC against the terminals.
The actuator of the FPC connector typically is movable between a first temporary position allowing free insertion of the FPC into the elongated cavity in the housing, and a second position wherein a pressure plate of the actuator biases the FPC against the terminals. Furthermore, the first temporary position usually is unstable and insecure, and inconvenient for manually manipulating the FPC connector.
One of the ever-increasing problems with FPC connectors of the character described above involves manually manipulating the housing, the actuator and the FPC to terminate the FPC. Simply put, there are three components that must be manipulated, and the operator has only two hands. In other words, to carry out a termination operation, the operator must hold the connector with one hand and insert and hold the FPC with the other hand while using one or both of the hands to move the actuator while the FPC is still held in the hollow portion of the housing. Quite often, the FPC moves or shifts while the actuator is being moved, resulting in an inadequate or defective termination. It can be understood that this problem is magnified as the connectors become longer to accommodate more terminals.
Hence, an improved FPC connector is needed to overcome the above-mentioned deficiencies of current FPC connectors.